Industry leaders Mr. Thej Kumar and Mr. B. Santanam shared transformative insights on Karakuri Kaizen as a philosophy of operational excellence that requires simplicity, observation, and people-centric leadership rather than large capital investments.
The Japanese Art of Simple, Effective Automation
Mr Thej Kumar
Vice President ‐ Operations, Product Development
and Quality, Toyoda Gosei South India Pvt. Ltd
At Toyota Gosei South India, we have implemented approximately 53 different types of Karakuri Kaizen solutions over the last five years. The results speak for themselves: 1,300 tons of carbon dioxide reduction, 28 manpower reduction, productivity increase of over 30 percent, and all this at a total investment that has not exceeded two to three lakhs rupees. That is the beauty of this approach.
In today’s world of technology, we are all glued to the idea that any improvement or development requires massive investment in AI and ML. Yes, these technologies are important, but are they the only solution? Can we do something better, simpler, and more effective? At Toyota and most Japanese companies, the shop floor is where we call ‘gemba.’ In Japanese terminology, there is a concept called ‘genchi gembutsu.’ Genchi means ‘to the point,’ and gemba means ‘at the shop floor.’ So it means ‘go to the point and check yourself.’ In today’s advanced age of 5G technology, this concept may sound outdated, but it remains fundamentally powerful.
The 4G concept in Japanese methodology is: Genchi, Gamutsu, Genjitsu, Genin. Go to the spot, check by yourself, confirm and validate. When somebody complains about a problem on the shop floor, many organizations take a call, send a WhatsApp, or have a video call. That is not genchi gembutsu. You must go to the spot yourself. At Toyota, we are very particular about safety. Even a small blade cut injury is reported within 24 hours globally to all CEOs and safety officers, followed by a permanent action plan within 7 days. When such an incident occurs, the MD himself will come to the spot to see it firsthand. This is genchi gembutsu in practice.
The concept of Karakuri Kaizen revolves around this way of thinking. When you observe properly—and I emphasize observe, not just see—you gain insights that lead to simple solutions. Observation is what gives you results. If you merely ‘see,’ it is like going to Marina Beach to enjoy the sunset, taking pictures, and coming back. That is not observation in the shop floor context. You must truly observe, because the science is simple physics. Simple science will develop ideas only when you observe properly.
Here is the remarkable truth: you do not need a master’s degree holder. You do not need an engineering graduate with a 9.0 CGPA. You do not need a person graduated from NIT or the best engineering colleges. A simple, ordinary person with basic education can generate these ideas. That is the beauty of this approach. In a shop floor where frontline workers execute continuous standard operating procedures, what matters is how well we involve them. To make Karakuri Kaizen successful, you need the right kind of leadership—not someone who merely approves investments or signs off on capital expenditure. You need a leader who invests his time in the shop floor, who works alongside the team, who understands their challenges. That is what creates success stories of Karakuri Kaizen.
Innovation Without Large Budgets—Why Constraints Drive Creativity
Mr B Santhanam
Former CEO, Asia Pacific & India and Chairman ‐
Saint‐Gobain, India
When I was invited to speak on Karakuri Kaizen on December 16th, I must confess I had absolutely no knowledge of the subject. But I have maintained a tradition for the past 25 years: I accept invitations to speak on subjects where I initially have little expertise. I try to learn from every speaking engagement, and that learning gets deposited somewhere and gets used later. Before coming here, I ensured the integrity to read the entire 54-page report on Karakuri Kaizen.
I felt a bit embarrassed when the moderator mentioned that Saint-Gobain has invested 12,000 crores rupees in India, and then he talked about Mr. T. Kumar spending only 5,000 to 6,000 rupees on a Karakuri Kaizen solution and saving 75 lakhs from it. That really puts things into perspective.
When we talk about innovation in industry today, the conversation usually starts in the wrong place. It begins with: How much will it cost? What technology should we buy? Which expert should we bring? What consultant can help us? But the paper released by Great Lakes raises a far more powerful and uncomfortable question: Why do we assume innovation has to be expensive in the first place? If innovation required large budgets, then only large companies would innovate effectively. Anyone who has led large organizations like Saint-Gobain knows that is simply not true.
Consider this: the entire AI revolution was founded by a group with fewer than 15 people. Google’s Deep Mind, before it became Google, was a company called Deep Mind Technologies in 2010 with hardly 15 people who started the whole revolution we are talking about today. Innovation does not require big ideas or big organizations to start. What I appreciate about this white paper is that it repeatedly states that some of the best improvements in productivity, quality, and sustainability come from ideas that cost almost nothing but require deep thinking.
One of the powerful statements in the paper is: ‘Money does not create innovation, but constraints do.’ The shop floor is precisely such a place where you are always constrained by resources, time, machines, and cost. This is what makes Karakuri Kaizen so compelling. When organizations say ‘we cannot innovate because we don’t have money,’ what they really mean is ‘we have stopped questioning how work is done.’
Consider the history of Saint-Gobain in India. We used to transport sand from our quarry about 400 tons daily across 90 kilometers to our glass plant in 25 trucks. When the trucks arrived, we unloaded the sand into a temporary storage yard because we wanted to protect against supply disruptions due to transport strikes. From there, we used front-end loaders to transfer it to intermediate storage, and finally to silos. The enemy of innovation in large organizations is not lack of money—it is unchallenged habits. At Saint-Gobain, we are a large materials movement company. We move 3,000 tons of sand daily to make 2,500 tons of glass. But the way we managed this process had become so ingrained that we never questioned it.
The journey that Karakuri Kaizen presents is not an overnight transformation. It is a continuous journey where you question every step, observe with fresh eyes, and implement simple solutions. That is what separates an organization that innovates consistently from one that merely talks about innovation.
I hope many of you will go through the white paper and understand how to implement these principles. The journey is not a sprint; it is a marathon. But the rewards—in terms of efficiency, safety, quality, and sustainability—are profound and lasting.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Karakuri Kaizen in Practice—Applications, Implementation, and Future
Dr. Kedar Pandurang Joshi (Moderator): Which industries and which processes within an industry are most suitable for application of Karakuri Kaizen?
Mr. T. Kumar: Any industry. Any process where there is scope for motion, where you need to move something from one end to another end. If we have that mindset, it is applicable everywhere—including banks, hospitals, and even this institution. It depends on what we want to achieve. This concept can be implemented anywhere. Although it originated as a Japanese term used in the automotive industry, we have seen examples in the cement industry. It can be used for lightweight operations or heavy-weight operations. There is no segregation. What matters most is how you visualize the process and approach it.
Mr. N. Harihara Subramanyan: In our experience at Mayura Automation and Robotics Systems, we have integrated Karakuri Kaizen with automation, IoT, and robotics. We have complete system setups with manless operations that work alongside Karakuri Kaizen.
Dr. Kedar Pandurang Joshi (Moderator): Do we have a blueprint for Karakuri Kaizen? Or, since it can be applied to any industry, how does a consultant or person identify where to begin?
Mr. T. Kumar: Let me give an example from everyday life. We have all played on a slide as children—climb 10 steps and slide down. We have all played on a seesaw with a fulcrum at the center. We did not use any automation or power. It was all based on gravity. Karakuri Kaizen originated in Japan as a name, but the principles have been used in India for centuries without understanding the formal methodology. The same principles have been converted for industrial use. If you look at a water tank at home, you can implement Karakuri Kaizen.
For instance, instead of an electric pump, you can insert an air ball into the water tank and use a pulley and rope system with minimum and maximum level indicators. What defines the number of possible applications is the type of karakuri. If you are talking about motion in the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis together as one package, that is one karakuri. If you split them depending on the process, each becomes a separate karakuri. It depends on how you break down the problem. So when we mention a thousand karakuris at Toyota, these are not new inventions; they are different motion solutions within the overall system.
Mr. Venugopal Gouda: I would request Mr. T. Kumar to find an Indian word for Karakuri Kaizen so that the obstacle of the foreign term is removed and everyone gets more involved. Second, and as Mr. Kumar rightly said, unless engineers go sit with workers and start doing things together, they will not come out with the right solutions. When I was in Tata during assembly, I put a tractor together at every stage for one month. One day I found a component sitting inside the tractor that was not doing anything. I questioned engineering about this coupling. Their reply: they had thought of using an implement at some time but never got the opportunity. That component was costing 75 rupees, and over two lakhs tractors had gone out with this unnecessary part. Unless you work alongside workers and understand their actual challenges, these invisible problems never reveal themselves.
Dr. Kedar Pandurang Joshi (Moderator): How is Karakuri Kaizen different from Lean manufacturing?
Mr. T. Kumar: Lean manufacturing is an end-to-end solution that covers the entire value chain from raw material to finished goods. Karakuri Kaizen is low-cost automation that we implement in a specific area or specific process. Lean is the overall methodology; Karakuri Kaizen is an aspect or subject within that broader methodology. It is a process-focused tool where every activity is viewed as a process. Cost is not the primary focus; rather, cost is a byproduct. If you approach Karakuri Kaizen only because you have a tight budget, that is the wrong approach. Lean manufacturing should be an activity that provides you with cost advantage, safety benefit, quality benefit—all of these together. Not primarily focused on cost, but cost is a happy byproduct.
Dr. Kedar Pandurang Joshi (Moderator): Where should organizations draw the line between Karakuri Kaizen and semi-automation or full automation with electric or pneumatic power?
Mr. T. Kumar: There are various types of solutions. Some are pure Karakuri Kaizen with no energy attached. Others are 80 percent Karakuri Kaizen with 20 percent automation. There are also 50-50 combinations. These two concepts are always attached; we cannot differentiate them completely. You cannot succeed with only pure Karakuri Kaizen; sometimes you need some automation. The decision should be based on the actual requirement. When an object comes from top to bottom, you can use gravity. When it goes from bottom to top, you require a source of energy unless you have a counterweight. However, we have seen cases where organizations put conveyors without thinking about necessity. In one cement plant, a conveyor was bringing bags from top to bottom. We asked: Why do you need that conveyor? They said the bags need to come at a certain speed. So people themselves used slides for fun. We replaced the conveyor with a chute. What is the energy consumption of a chute? Zero. The cost saving? 50 lakhs rupees. The cost of the chute? 10,000 rupees. That answers the question.
Mr. N. Harihara Subramanyan: As an automation service provider at Mayura, I strongly believe that Karakuri Kaizen mindset must happen in people’s minds first at every level of industry—not only on the shop floor but in the office as well. Technology is changing fast, and new solutions are emerging constantly. Everybody should be aware of what is happening globally and bring in new technologies that can simplify operations. For example, laser technology has revolutionized welding and cutting, and vision technology has transformed inspection over the last decade. Industry cannot progress without bringing in new technologies alongside Karakuri Kaizen principles. Every worker in the office and shop floor should be a kaizen warrior. They need to be trained as they are our assets. They should be made to think, to participate, and to be rewarded so that good suggestions come forward. If we support these suggestions with appropriate funding and implementation support, we can drive significant improvements in quality, productivity, and profitability without spending large fortunes.
Dr. Kedar Pandurang Joshi (Moderator): The approach should be to observe, understand, question, and then implement the right solution—whether it is pure Karakuri Kaizen or a hybrid approach with some automation. The goal is always to achieve the best outcome with the simplest, most cost-effective solution. That is the essence of what we have learned from this remarkable discussion.
